Weaverville – With the Town of Weaverville about to grow by 50 percent in the next few years, many people in the community worry about whether the town will have enough water to deliver to their development commitments.
The Tribune reported a week or so ago in mid-December, that “according to Weaverville Town Planner James Eller, the current number of dwelling units in the town is 2,354 as per the 2020 decennial census, so that doesn’t include what’s been built in the last two-plus years. Eller also said, ‘Additional permitted or planned dwelling units known [as of] now are approximately 1,100,’ a nearly 50% increase in housing over the next few years.”
However, Weaverville Public Works Director Dale Pennell addressed the question of enough water before the Weaverville Town Council during the final meeting of the year. Pennell said all the commitments of the current project, especially North Ridge Farm, a nearly 600-unit housing development, will not be using water before the 1.5 million gallon expansion for the water treatment plant is finished by 2026.
Councilman Doug Jackson said he thought it would be four or five years before the expansion came online. Pennell explained that some of that was already done and it should be only two and a half years from completion now.
In his quarterly report to the council, he stated during the last three months of water production, the town had pumped an average of nearly 22.4 million gallons per month from the Ivy River, which is about 50% of the plant’s current capacity. In his report, Water Capacity VS Production, Pennell’s report reveals an even better outlook, showing that the average use relative to design capacity averages 46.6% of capability.
The town was bolstered back in September of 2023 to move forward with the expansion project when the NC General Assembly passed a budget with $15 million earmarked for the town to help with the expansion, which will double the plant’s current water capacity from 1.5 million per day to 3 million per day. Weaverville has a tight water system, losing only about eight percent of its water to leakages. Anything under 10 percent is considered a tight water system.
According to Pennell’s report to the board, current commitment will push the existing plant to 94.33 percent of its capacity, but that may be because the state makes the town use a 400-gallon allocation per unit per day for estimating future consumption when the actual use per unit recorded by the town is much lower.
In any case, according to Pennell, the town’s residents have nothing to worry about when it comes to the current water treatment plant’s
ability to provide enough water for current use and future growth before the expansion is online in 2026.